Fhugen Honu GH3 Video Cage Hands On Review
Fhugen (Fusion) Honu GH3 Video Cage
The Photography and Cinema Fhugen Hono (pronounced as Fusion) is a custom designed GH3 cage. Yes it’s made specifically for the GH3.
LCD works just like as if it wasn’t in the cage.
This is great because it fits the GH3 like a glove. You have access to all the features and all the compartments of the GH3 without any issues.
HDMI cable cable goes into the camera without the cage getting in the way.
Battery door opens perfectly
Media card door also opens with no issue.
Universal cages could have issues of blocking those function buttons, Jacks or doors. Not with the Fhugen Hono GH3 cage. PNC Photography and Cinema is a fairly new company, and from this cage I can see they make solid well designed products. The cage is very well made and they defiantly thought it through. It’s actually four pieces so if you wanted to break it down it’s easy to do. Just unscrew the eight screws and it breaks down into four pieces. I probably wouldn’t do this but if you need to pack it in a tight bag you have the option.
The cage is covered with 1/4 20 and 3/8 tapped mounting holes. On top of the cage a few untapped holes are also available.
FHUGEN GH3 VIDEO CAGE
Like I said this cage is custom made for the GH3. It fits nice and snug. The cage has two rubber strips right where the GH3 will sit on. The camera attaches to the cage from three points of contact. The top hot shoe on the GH3 slides into the top adapter and at the bottom you use the supplied screw to lock it in the tripod tapped hole on the GH3. I like the two anti-twist front stops they added to the front. These prevent the GH3 from twisting inside the cage and it works very well. The top mount also helps prevent twisting. With these three points of contact the GH3 is super secure and becomes one with the cage. It’s also very light keeping the already small and nimble GH3 very portable.
Fhugen Honu Handle Accessorie
The cage has three cold shoe dovetails on the top. One on each side and one in the center. Accessories with cold shoe mounts on them can be easily attached to the cage like a Rode mic or wireless receivers. The center dovetail is perfect for mounting a handle or microphone. A handle will be available soon from Photography and Cinema.
All rigged up
From here you can add all your accessories and configure the Fhugen Hono the way you want. It’s endless what you can add to it making the GH3 a cinema capturing machine.
Now for the best part! The price. It’s only $99 for now. That is an amazing deal for a cage thats built like this one. It’s normally $199 but for now you can get it direct form Photography and Cinema for only $99. This my friends is the deal of the day!
Fhugen products are designed by a small team of passionate filmmakers in the USA.
Features I like.
- Custom Made for the GH3
- All inputs and doors unobstructed
- Solid and light weight
- Breaks down if needed
- More tapped holes than anyone needs
- Three dovetails for coldshoe accessories
- Very easy to get the GH3 into the cage. Only one screw driver needed.
- Price
Here is Fhugen’s story about how and why they created this cage.
We wanted to share the process of how we started the production of the HONU CAGE – {GH3}.
It all started with the void in the market for a quality cage at a reasonable price for the Panasonic GH3
With a couple of GH3’s in our hands, we started brainstorming on all of the criteria that would be great to have in a cage that is dedicated to the GH3. After several days with a chalkboard along with many emails and cups of coffee we came up with our dream set of requirements.
Next came the design phase. We sat down with our favorite CAD package and let the creative juices flow. This part of the process provided a glimpse into what the future may bring. We purposely designed the part to meet our target price point. After several design iterations it was time to start cutting metal.
We decided to go with a laser cut part for the prototype and epoxy it together. Well the design had to be tweaked for this process, so back to the CAD station. Once the proto design was completed we had the cage laser cut in multiple parts. We designed a quick fixture and epoxyed all the parts together. After curing we tossed the cage onto the camera and oops there was a few things not quite aligning. Apparently it’s difficult to accurately measure all of the features of a camera.We repeated the prototype process a few times more and were happy with the results. It seemed like everything was working just right.
Satisfied with the rough proto’s we next contacted a local machine shop and had a couple of prototypes manufactured. We needed to show the investors a finalized sample and have a sample for manufacturing to accompany the drawings. The machined prototypes came out really nice and easily convinced the investors to allow us to begin manufacturing.
We have learned a lot in a very compact time line and are looking forward to the next cage project.
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Honu Pocket Camera Cage Coming Soon…..
Filed in: Equipment Reviews • GH3 • Support and Grip
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I have the Honu GH3 cage and I absolutely agree with the points highlighted! It is a well-thought product and works brilliantly as the heart of my rig.
How much was shipping and customs fees to US?
PNC has free shipping and I believe the products ship from the US, but please check with them direct at pncsalesinfo@gmail.com
What is the handle and shoulder mount system you have there?
These are bits from Cinevate Simplis duo rig.
http://www.cinevate.com/store2/simplis-dual-dslr-rig.html#sthash.ixFlwnba.dpbs
I have one of these cages on order, and wonder if anyone has suggestions on how to attach it to a rail system with a follow focus. There aren’t many tapped holes on the bottom of the cage, which is a bit disappointing. Is there a quick release system that fits this and provides really solid support to eliminate play with the follow focus.
P&C hasn’t released the hdmi clamp, and I’m wondering if there are alternate ways to secure the hdmi cable.
thanks!
Wish the next version of this cage would allow the GH4 screen to rotate more when it is flipped out…. :-/ It would really make the cage perfect then!
I have exchanged emails with PNC, and they have stated that the redesigned cage does NOT improve the rotation range, nor the loose top handle (http://youtu.be/YpvuSeW1VVg). Too bad, as the price and overall build quality of the cage is pretty good.
The other PNC product I own is their EVF-4 “universal fit” view finder. I had to add a thicker mounting pad and find a longer mounting screw to make it fit my GH3 and GH4 cameras.
PNC has some good products, but their engineering sometimes falls short of hitting the mark.
darn, disappointing! Thanks for asking them though.
Does look like one of the best options, am considering it as a cage for my BMPCC that can also be used for when I get a GH4 (rather than buying a cage which will only work on the BMPCC).
The Honu cage is not a “bad” cage, per se. It just has a few design flaws that I was hoping PNC would refine. I think it may be the least expensive GH3/GH4 cage (I got mine on sale with top handle and hdmi clamp for $99). I was a reluctant to spend more on a cage as I thought it may be limited to just the GH3. Fortunately, Panasonic didn’t change the GH4 body, so the cage works with both cameras.
BTW, if you need full rotation of the OLED screen and can live with just two cold shoe mounts and no hdmi clamp, you can remove the left side of the cage. By connecting the cage to the GH3/4’s hotshoe mount and bottom screw mount, the two points of contact are stable enough to use the cage without the left panel. Doing so leaves you with two cold shoe mounts and a bunch of 1/4″ and 3/8″ tapped holes for mounting peripherals.
You can also move the left side of the cage forward, by attaching it with only two of the four screws. Its a bit funky and may interfere with a follow focus, but you retain all 3 cold shoe mounts and the hdmi clamp.
Hi there, appreciate I’m resurrecting a really old post, but does anyone know the weight of the cage please?! Just the cage, without the top handle…
Thanks